The Egyptian authorities held an “important and decisive” meeting with Masood Ahmed, Director of the International Monetary Fund’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, yesterday in Dubai as they discussed the long-awaited US$ 4.8 billion loan that Egypt seeks to secure.
Egypt plans to sign the definitive loan agreement before the end of this month, concurrently with the IMF’s meeting with the World Bank in Washington from 16th to 21st of April, a high-level governmental source told Al-Masry Al-Youm. The value of the loan will not be changed as agreed, the source affirmed. However, the IMF had earlier stated that it could conceivably change the loan’s size depending on Egypt’s needs.
The Egyptian delegation in Dubai, which includes the Minister of Finance El-Morsi Hegazy, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Ashraf Al-Araby and governor of the Central Bank of Egypt Hisham Ramez, will return Egypt tomorrow to resume talks with IMF mission which will arrive in Cairo today.
